A quiet year for major catastrophes did not translate into fewer losses for insurers, according to the Xactware 2014 Property Report.

Severe weather damage from wind, hail, lightning and tornadoes was at the fourth-highest level in history, Greg Pyne, Xactware's assistant vice president of Pricing Data Services, said in a statement. The trend of high damage from severe weather continued to trouble the industry in 2014. Total insured losses due to thunderstorms saw the fourth highest number on record, with $12.3 billion.

Xactware's XactAnalysis network processed 4,218,586 claims estimates valued at $38,569,780,316. Year-over-year, the January 2014 total of $3.02 billion for property estimates was more than $260 million higher than the January 2013 figure of $2.76 billion. June saw the most claims activity with a reported $4.44 billion in estimates. July came in second with $3.96 billion in property estimates, followed by October with $3.39 billion. The two months with the lowest estimate totals were November with $2.28 billion and December with $2.46 billion.

The cost of the average fire loss continued its downward trend, dropping almost 9% from $45,268 in 2013 to $41,256 in 2014. The average cost of a fire loss in 2012 was $46,374.

The number of water losses increased from 865,043 in 2013 to 1,208,297 and were the most common type of loss reported in 2014. The average cost of a water loss claim dropped 4% from $6,360 in 2013 to $6,089 in 2014.

Hail damage estimates also continued to increase, growing by almost 19% to 1,173,099 in 2014, but the average cost remained basically the same from year to year.

Xactimate tracks the losses from five primary sources: contractors, independent adjusters, mitigation providers, specialty providers and staff adjusters. The majority of the claims (65%) were compiled by staff adjusters (2.76 million), followed by independent adjusters (22%) with 958,447 claims. Contractors and mitigation providers each compiled 6% of the claims, and specialty providers only 1%. According to the study, the claims estimates did not include any reassigned estimates.

The average price of the estimates for all of these professionals dropped from 2014 to 2013. Specialty providers saw the biggest drop in estimate costs going from $6,635 to $3,871. Independent adjusters saw a $1,390 decrease in their average estimates.

Fire losses uploaded by staff adjusters were the highest estimates with an average value of $46,363, but the number was still 10% lower than the 2013 figure of $52,012. Fire estimates from independent adjusters averaged $41,565 and contractors submitted estimates at $22,713.

Hail losses from specialty providers ran just over $20,000, almost twice as high as the estimates submitted by staff adjusters, independent adjusters and mitigation providers.

Texas reported the highest number of personal property claims valued at $322.3 million, but California actually reported the highest total value at $411.3 million. Colorado reported the most personal property claims with five claims per 1,000 residents.

Special Reports /

2014: Busy Year for Weather Damage

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